1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic money holding system, and more particularly to an electronic money holding device which makes it possible to automatically perform a payment having an amount payable and a due date both known from a contract beforehand, and an electronic money automatic payment method which uses such a device.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a method in which so-called xe2x80x9celectronic moneyxe2x80x9d is held in an IC chip on an IC card and is transferred through a network, there is known a method based on MONDEX money as disclosed by, for example, xe2x80x9cShukan Diamond (combined number in the New Year of Heisei 8)xe2x80x9d published on January 1996.
In this conventional payment method using the IC card, the IC card is set into a dedicated reader/writer (or IC card reader/writer). Thereafter, for example, a payer manually operates a dedicated telephone or a personal computer (PC).
On the other hand, as a method in which an amount of money prescribed by a contract is paid to a service provider on a date prescribed by the same contract, there is a method for an automatic transfer through a bank account. This payment by automatic transfer through a bank account is realized by an accounting system which manages a ledger database and processes a payment transaction. In the accounting system, the process is performed in accordance with the same procedure irrespective of the amount of money to be paid.
In the payment by automatic transfer through a bank account, the automatic transfer is set or released by the accounting system in accordance with an instruction from a payee. The accounting system is concentrically managed at a computer center.
The above-mentioned prior art is based on, for example, the manual operation of a dedicated telephone or a personal computer by a payer. Therefore, for example, the payment of a premium involves a problem that the payer has to perform a manual operation similarly each time, notwithstanding that an amount payable and a due date are known from a contract beforehand.
An object of the present invention made in light of the above circumstances is to solve the problem in the prior art as mentioned above, thereby realizing a system which makes it possible to automatically perform a payment having an amount payable and a due date both known from a contract beforehand.
More particularly, the object of the present invention is to provide an electronic money automatic payment method which makes it possible to automatically perform a payment having an amount payable and a due date both known from a contract beforehand, thereby reducing the complexity of payment and surely performing the payment, and the present invention further relates to an electronic money holding device which is suitable for the use in such a method.
The present invention provides an electronic money holding device which includes first storage means for storing an identification number of a personal electronic money holding device and the balance of electronic money held therein. A central processing unit has a procedure for performing the reference to, and the updating of, the balance of electronic money, and a procedure for controlling the transfer of electronic money between the personal electronic money holding device and another electronic money holding device, in which there is provided second storage means for storing information for each of one or more contracts concluded between a service provider and a payer of a counter value for a provided service (or a service buyer). The stored information includes an amount payable from the service buyer to the service provider, a due date for payment of that amount, an identification number of an electronic money holding device of the service provider, and information for making access to an electronic money holding device of the service buyer in a network to which the electronic money holding device of the service provider and the electronic money holding device of the service buyer are connected.
Also, the present invention provides an electronic money payment method for performing the payment from the service buyer to the service provider by use of the above-mentioned electronic money holding device. Such method comprises a step of acquiring a date, a step of reading the amount payable from the service buyer to the service provider and the due date prescribed by the contract from the second storage means of the above-mentioned electronic money holding device, and a step of remitting, in the case where the acquired date is the read due date, electronic money from the service buyer to the service provider.
Further, the present invention provides a method and a device for writing information into the second storage means of the above-mentioned electronic money holding device.